Sexual assault of boy at shelter is investigated

Updated 10:18 pm, Monday, September 26, 2011

Harris County sheriff's officials confirmed Monday that detectives are investigating the sexual assault of an 8-year-old boy at the St. Michael's Home for Children and plan to review whether the shelter staff violated any laws in handling the incident.

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Detectives were told that a teacher had walked in on a 10-year-old boy allegedly sexually assaulting the 8-year-old in a St. Michael's shelter on the city's north side on July 1, Gilliland said. That teacher immediately told an assistant shelter coordinator, he said.

When a child psychologist and forensic specialist interviewed the victim in August, he reported being sexually abused or assaulted on "several occasions" and by a second child, who was 11, Gilliland said.

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Catholic Charities officials said Monday that the boy did not make any report of a sexual assault before July 1 and that they contacted state child-care licensing officials that same day.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) on Monday corrected its earlier report that the state was first notified on July 13 of an incident at the shelter.

Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman with DFPS, said the shelter "self-notified" the agency of an incident within 24 hours of the July 1 assault, but he could not provide any additional details of what specific allegations the shelter workers reported to the state.

He said a "technical mix-up" resulted in the report not being investigated, and that the state was still trying to determine what exactly happened with the case. DFPS officials opened an investigation into the incident on July 13, and documented deficiencies at the shelter that were later corrected, he said.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which places children and teenagers caught crossing the border without family members into temporary care, notified officials with Catholic Charities in September that it planned to temporarily remove all children and youths housed in the organization's three Houston-area shelters after determining that the organization's management had "deliberately misled" ORR about the July 1 assault.

Report omitted assault

Shelter management failed to report the incident to federal officials until July 5, and then submitted a report that failed to mention that a sexual assault had taken place, the report states.

Shelter workers did not seek medical treatment for the child until after the incident was reported to ORR on July 5, and only then after they were ordered to do so by federal officials, according to the report.

"ORR discovered there was an intentional plan by CCGH Senior Management to intimidate and or pressure staff to not disclose material facts of the July 1, 2011, incident to ORR in order to 'protect the program,'" the report states.

Catholic Charities officials said Monday that the "senior management" cited in the federal report referred to St. Michael's program management - not executive-level Catholic Charities managers.

Catholic Charities officials said in a statement Friday that "when Catholic Charities learned of ORR's concerns, the individual employee at St. Michael's responsible for those concerns was subsequently terminated."

Outside investigation

After the July 1 incident, the organization contracted with an outside firm to conduct an investigation and review its initial response, Catholic Charities had said.

The ORR report calls for Catholic Charities to identify and reprimand staff responsible for the delay in seeking medical care for the child victim, who some staff members noted was "withdrawn" and "quiet" after the assault.

The report also calls for the removal from the ORR program of staff found to have falsified the incident reports.

As of Friday, ORR had removed all but five of the 72 youths in Catholic Charities' care.

U.S. immigration officials placed 6,074 immigrant and refugee children in the care of ORR in 2009, the most recent data available. The St. Michael's program served nearly 850 children and youths from 2008 to 2010.